Isaiah 50:4-9a (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 50:4-9a on biblegateway.com
Verse 4The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. Verse 5The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. Verse 6I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. Verse 7The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; Verse 8he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. Verse 9It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Devotion
This is an old, old story. Told first by the Hebrews, the Jewish community into which Mary birthed Jesus. This is the story he grew up with. And now for us as Christians, these words ring with deep resonance as we hear again the story of Jesus’ passion. We hear in these words a profound obedience, a submission unto death—a death that reveals to us a love that sustains us even beyond death. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” This love calls us into a deep relationship that orders our lives and grasps our soul beyond anything that we can fathom. The world turns through the flames of war, through the isolation of famine, through genocide and ecocide; yet God calls us to love no matter the cost, no matter the suffering, holding us close in a promise larger than any we can comprehend.
Prayer
God of Love, touch our ears that we might hear your voice, touch our hearts that we might live out your commands, touch our bodies that we might always follow you. Amen.
Interested in digging deeper into today’s text?
Read more here.